Whose side are you on?
by LorinaLiddell
Summary: Halle has a lot to think over after Mello's death.


- Whose side are you on, Halle? On mine or Near's?  
- Why, didn't I tell you it a week ago? I'm on no one's side, - she answers calmly, wiping the hair with towel.-You and Near both long for catching Kira. So you are allies, right?  
Mello keeps silent and frowns. He doesn't want to accept that Halle is right. Halle gives him a questioning look:  
- Hey, tell me the plan. Are you leaving? If yes, I'll tell Near, that you were hiding in my bathroom, and I've told to you everything, that I had to tell. Or I should give you one more chance to get acquainted?..  
- Halle, come back in the headquarters. - He says finally after a minute of silence.  
She raises her eyebrows, puzzled.  
- Eh? I have no reasons to return there.-However the pistol put to her forehead forces the woman to change opinion.  
- You always have a reason to do it.  
- All right, all right. Just put away this thing. And would you also let me to get dressed, Mello?  
The sight of his dark eyes has thoughtfully slipped on woman's figure.  
- Yeah, it would be a sin - to show this to others, - he smirks, putting the gun away. - I'll wait.  
Halle walks to the room, slowly puts on the underwear, shirt, slowly buttons it up... Feeling a soft touch to her back, she interests quietly:  
- Aren't you hurrying to Near's? Kira is...  
Kira. That's the thing that unites all of them - both two pupils of Wammy House, and her, the ex-agent of CIA... Desire to revenge. And be first to do it, right, Mello? As if having guessed woman's thoughts he removed his hand and floped on the sofa, which stood in the room. Halle hears familiar rustling of the foil and lets herself to give a gentle smile.  
"No, you won't change. Ever".  
- Eating such an amount of chocolate is direct way to diabetes,- she notices. Though she knows, that it's no use of telling him about it. As for the habits, Michael Keehl is awfully obstinate in them. Halle expects to hear his usual "I don't care" or "I like it anyway", but Mello suddenly asks:  
- Hal, what's your pseudonym now? I doubt that all of you would use real names.  
- Lidner. - She answers, not rising the head and trying to fasten the zipper on her skirt.- As for name - I haven't changed it.  
- Lidner, heh? Sounds almost German, - Mello grins. - But I think that Keehl is much better.  
Halle pulls the zipper with great force, and when it finally gives in and gets clasped, turns to Mello:  
- Are you proposing to me in such an original manner?  
- What will you do if I say "yes"? - he keeps on grinning.- Hallie, think it over! This chance happens only once a lifetime.  
- Go to hell, - and Halle meant no offence by saying that. They were acquainted for many years, and she has already learned, when he was joking or not.  
He becomes unexpectedly serious.  
- We'll all be there. Me, Matt, Near, and you... So why not together?  
She gives him a slight flick on the nose.  
- Fool. I'm planning to live as long as I can, and when I become old I'll be breeding Pekineses in a cosy house somewhere in suburbs.  
- Can it be Berlin? - Mello asks.  
Halle keeps silent for a while, and then responds:  
- Cologne'll be better. It's more quiet.  
To plan the future, while having such a dangerous lifestyle, is pointless. They are walking on the razor's edge and who knows, whether they will survive the end of the year. But Halle hopes. Hopes and waits.  
When he got enraged and pointed a gun on Near, Lester and Giovanni instantly responded to the threat for the boss and did the same to Mello. Halle rushed to him without a moment's hesistation. She stood before him and softly drawed the gun down.  
- Mello, if you kill Near now and try to catch Kira by yourself, Near's death will be senseless. If you kill him, we'll kill you, - she sees a glimpse of shock in his eyes but keeps talking anyway. - If you both die, it all will have no sense.  
He puts away the gun and hems.  
- Correct. - But in his eyes, she reads the same question: "So whose side are you on, Hal?"  
Then Mello starts talking about the photo, and, after having it back, throws some phrases about the Death Note. Then he leaves, but even after this, the ex-agent of CIA can't let herself to relax. Only to think, to do all that depends from her and to believe-believe-believe…  
She continues to believe even when the things become too hot. When he takes Takada away on his motorcycle and tells her to hold on to him. Halle is the professional and she doesn't allow her feelings to affect the job. She orders other securities via phone to follow the motorcycle - in a word, doing what she should do. But, while reporting to Near, she thinks only that his reckless behaviour and impulsiveness won't lead to any good. She knows, but is unable to believe, that he is gone, when she sees the ignescent building, in which he should be with Takada.  
"Mello... Silly boy, I begged of you to be more cautious. Well, okay. I didn't. But damn it, you should've acted in more reasonable way!" Lidner smiles bitterly. "That was beyond him..."  
She does not cry. Even when firemen take his body, which has scorched almost beyond recognition, out of the building. Controls herself. When she calls to inform Near about it, the voice sounds calm. Eventually, Halle've told Mello the truth back then: she didn't love him.  
_- Michael, do you have any piece of brains or not? - Halle chides him, carefully cleaning the wounds which the fidgety blond got after the explosion.- Will you ever stop to endanger your life so recklessly?  
- What hell for? - He screws up his face, when antiseptics gets to the wound and bites unpleasantly.- It's boring, Hal.  
- You'll get a clip on the back of your head, - she threatens, taking a bandage from first-aid kit. - What the boy...  
- Hey, no clips! I'm wounded here, you know! - Mello is filled with indignation. However, after he finds a chocolate bar on a little table, the rest of the world doesn't matter anymore. He is starting to unwrap it, holding a little smile on the face.  
- Next time, I'll kill you, definitely, - Halle gives him a grave look, applying a bandage to his shoulder, and then - to his face.  
- Nope, - he responds light-heartedly. - You do love me.  
- Not likely. - Halle chuckles.- You are such a baby. And the scars won't make you the man.  
He chews the chocolate with offended look on the face, and she laughs quietly. But it's the fear that Lidner hides behind her laughter. She subconsciously feels, that Mello will soon be killed, and she knows that she can't do a thing to prevent it. When she shares this foreboding with him, Michael only brushes it aside, telling his friend that she thinks too much. Halle wishes to believe in it. She wishes, but she can't. But when Mello tells her to believe in him, she agrees silently. _  
...She does not cry even standing next to Near and looking as the coffin with Mello's body is lowered in the ground. The coffin is closed, but that's only for the better: Halle will remember the second L's successor the same which she saw him the last time. And Lidner would certainly be pursued by nightmares, if she saw what have become of his face now.  
- So whose side am I on? - Halle whispers, putting an iris to the tomb.- You know, Michael... If you'd said that words about a surname once again, I would agree without a moment's thought. I'd give everything only to hear you calling me "Hallie" again, see you smirking and once again doing one of those crazy things... If it's possible to consider it choosing one certain side, than I'm on yours, completely.  
Halle didn't love Mello, ever. They both knew it. But why now she desperately wants to believe in the opposite?


End file.
